Moorpark overcame an early deficit with 24 unanswered points and went on to beat SBCC 24-9 on Saturday in a nonconference football game at La Playa Stadium.
SBCC jumped ahead 2-0 when Mitch Nelson tackled Josh Robles in the end zone for a safety on the opening kickoff. The Vaqueros took their biggest lead of the year, 9-0, on a six-play, 33-yard drive after Mike Spiritosanto recovered a fumble.
Keegan Robilotta threw an 11-yard TD pass to tight end Tyson Heller in the back of the end zone with 11:55 to go in the second quarter. Alonzo Winn, who had a season-high 108 yards on 23 rushes, had 32 yards in the drive that started with a holding penalty which pushed the ball back to the 43.
Larry Looney ran for a pair of second-quarter touchdowns to give the Raiders (2-2) a 14-9 halftime lead. Willis Franklin had 97 of his team’s 240 rushing yards.
Moorpark won the yardage battle 354-155 over the Vaqueros (0-4).
“Our defense played hard and the offense had some success, which is important,” said coach Craig Moropoulos. “We’ll try to built on that.”
Sophomore linebacker Manny Hernandez, the APC Defensive Player of the Week, had 16 tackles for the second straight week. He had five solos and a sack. Chad Quirarte collected 12 tackles and a fumble recovery while Marcus Griffin had nine tackles and forced two fumbles.
“I was proud of our defense, they took the ball away a couple of times,” said Moropoulos. “We need to make a field goal (the Vaqueros are 0-for-4) and we need to continue to get better.”
Quirarte recovered a fumble at the Raider 23 with 34 seconds left in the first half. After gaining six yards, SBCC was called for a block in the back and Michael Morando missed a 44-yard field goal.
On the opening drive of the third quarter, the Vaqueros went 33 yards to the Moorpark 32. They tried a fake punt on fourth-and-5 but Spiritosanto’s run came up two yards short.
The visitors used the longest drive of the night — 84 yards in 11 plays — to take a 21-9 lead on a 16-yard pass from Nick Owens to DeAndre Hutchins with 12:48 remaining.
The Vaqueros open American Pacific Conference play on Saturday with a 6 p.m. game at L.A. Southwest.
